Joie de Vivre Pretty Cure
by veroniquemagique
Summary: When a great evil rises, destroys the great Temporal Orb and throws the climatic balance out of whack, only a group of teens wielding the magic of the four seasons can hope to put a stop to their plans. Join Lily, Rita, Isis and Marya on their adventure to prevent the world from becoming a deadly wasteland and protect the world's natural beauty!
1. A New Beginning?

"Lily?"

I heard the voice calling my name, but it sounded kind of far away. Before I could really put any thought into who was calling me, or even what the reason was for it, a firm hand shook my shoulder and abruptly pulled me away from my hazy inner thoughts.

"Lily!"

My eyes fluttered open as I lifted my face off of the desk. At first, all I could see was a blue layered skirt, and a feeling of fear washed over me pretty quickly. That skirt meant that Ms. Adams, my biology teacher, was standing in front of me – and her strained tone told me it wasn't for a good reason.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… I'm surprised, Lily. You're not usually the one to fall asleep in my class," she said, her arms folded across her chest and her head shaking at me from above. "Now, I know this unit is pretty dry, but if you're going to fall asleep, as least don't make it so obvious." With my awful snoring habits… I could only assume that that was what she meant by "obvious".

"I-I'm so sorry, Ms.! It won't happen again…" I replied, half whispering out of my shame. She sighed as she turned and started in the direction of the Smartboard.

"Just try not to let it happen again, okay?"

I honestly hadn't realized that I had nodded off – and she's right, I'm not normally the one to do so – but my goodness, all I can feel right now is just really, overwhelmingly exhausted. And when I think about the crazy reason why? Hah, that makes me feel a lot more like my classmates who are usually the sleepers.

Today is only the second day of school, so realistically, I shouldn't be so tired already. I shouldn't be this tired until maybe midway through the semester. Why am I then? Well I know the first day of school is usually quite an… interesting day, but let me tell you just _how_ interesting yesterday was.

To be fair, it started out pretty normal. Dressed up in my specially selected "first day" outfit, I came to school, hung out by myself in the courtyard for a bit, went to my new classes and panicked about seating arrangements, ate lunch by myself in the courtyard, and after lunch, went to the first assembly of the year. Up to that point, it was an ordinary day for a first day of the new year.

At the assembly though… oh boy. Ok, so, I just sat wherever there was somewhere to sit, as the bleachers aren't necessarily any better than the floor because they both are super duper uncomfortable. Miss Reilly, the principal, went up and did her whole "welcome back" speech, which was… well… she thinks she's funnier than she is, I'll put it that way. Anyways, the gym teacher, Mr. Calhoun – or Mr. C, as we call him – came out after her to do his "I'm going to make everyone get up and do a silly dance" routine, and I don't know what was different about it, but I actually felt like getting into it this time. It was kind of fun, y'know, when you're not the only one dancing around all silly like that.

About five or ten minutes before they probably would have let us go, that's when it got weird. Yes, even weirder than an eccentric middle aged woman laughing at her own jokes, or short muscular man in a really lame sweatband getting a bunch of teens to dance. This really strange noise suddenly came out of the PA speakers. It was kind of like mic feedback, but also kind of off-key – and it certainly hurt my ears, and everyone else's too. Not only did it hurt their ears though, it also seemed to put them to sleep. At the time, I wasn't really sure why I was still awake, but it sure gave me an unsettling feeling.

What happened next is a little fuzzy to me, but that's mostly because it happened really fast. First, there was this goth-looking kid who almost seemed as if they walked up out of the floor as they approached the center of the gym. I could tell they were holding something in their hand by their body language, and as they pressed the contents of their hand against the podium's microphone, it began to turn black – as if its own shadow consumed it.

The darkened microphone, podium and all, started changing shape, and pretty soon in the center of the gym, all I could see was a large robot-like _thing_ standing there. It had wooden arms and legs, its body was a giant speaker, and it was holding a mic. On its… forehead, I guess… was a small sparkling diamond. Without a word, the kid who summoned the thing melted into their shadow on the ground, silently letting their creation loose. That's when it made its battle cry of that painful feedback noise again.

Until that point, I was pretty much paralyzed with fear, but then I got this Disney-like warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. It led me to stand up at the very least, and my immediate plan was to get the heck out of dodge as soon as possible, but then I felt something latch onto my leg.

I looked down, and there was this little pink creature attached to my calf – in hindsight, I think it was a rabbit. It looked up at me, and its large bunny eyes were filled with tears. I could feel its tiny body shaking against my leg, so I gently lifted it off of me and held it out to get a look at.

"You've gotta help me! Please, miss, you've gotta…" The pink rabbit spoke as it sat limp and dejected in my hands. The speech of the rabbit caused me to drop it to the hard gym floor – because, y'know, rabbits don't talk. Clearly the sound of the rabbit hitting the floor caught the attention of that robot-monster thing, because it turned its focus in our direction and began to stomp to the far side of the gym where I stood.

"Miss, you've gotta use my power and become a Pretty Cure! It's the only way to stop that thing from hurting all these people!" The rabbit whimpered, as it looked up at me once more. For some reason, that struck a chord. Let the entire student body get severely hurt? Sure, there's a lot of those people I don't really care for, and a lot of them I don't even know, but I knew in my heart I couldn't just let bad things happen to them.

The rabbit reached its paw into the fluffy fur on its chest and – somehow – pulled out a crystal that was shaped like a flower. It held the crystal tightly between its two front paws, and closed its eyes. Suddenly, it too changed shape, but this time it was into a small cellphone-like object, and not a giant monster. I bent down and picked it up, albeit with a fair bit of hesitation admittedly.

"Spin the flower, quickly!" The rabbits voice echoed out from the phone. Not wanting to wait for the monster to finish its trek towards me, I listened pretty eagerly. With a hasty flick of my finger, I gave the flower that was displayed on the screen a spin. The phone made a little chiming noise, and light blindingly burst out from the screen, causing me to shut my eyes and look away.

When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see the gym anymore, but instead, all I could see was an endless cascade of flowers twirling around me amidst a green glow. Instead of freaking out, like I feel like I should've reacted, I just… well, I wasn't standing, it was more like I floated there in awe.

"Pretty Cure Renaissance de Joie!"

I distinctly remember those words coming out of my mouth, and I'm not sure where I came up with them, but I guess they did the trick. The flowers honed in on my body, and I began to feel the gentle breeze of their spinning around me. Piece by piece, they wrapped around me and formed into a really pretty outfit. I didn't notice until it floated around in front of me, but my hair had also become pink and had arranged itself into a ponytail. If only getting dolled up was normally this easy.

As the light and flowers faded away, and I regained my footing on the gymnasium floor, I took a moment to appreciate my new outfit. I was wearing this neat green and pink dress with puffy sleeves and a skirt like a tulip, pink flats with ankle straps, and a pink choker. At my hip was a small pouch the size of that phone, so I guessed that that's where it had gone. As I reached up to feel my hair, I felt a crown of flowers sitting on my head like I'd normally wear a headband. The whole thing was pretty surreal, but at least I was dressed nice.

"Blossom!" I called out, as a tingling feeling washed over me and snapped me out of my fashion daze. "The fresh joy of spring, I am Cure…" I paused and looked down at my outfit again quickly for some sort of inspiration, "… uh… Cure… Tulip!"

"Great! Cure Tulip! You've transformed into a legendary warrior – a Pretty Cure!" The tiny rabbit voice called out from the small hip pouch. "Now, you need to go fight that monster and get back the treasure it has!"

"What do you me-" I began to question that statement, before a giant microphone speedily flying in my direction abruptly interrupted. My instinct was to leap out of the way, but the leap I took was… a little overshot, to say the least. Next thing I knew, I was in the air above the cloud of dirt and debris that rose from the crater the monster had created in the floor. As soon as I noticed, I panicked and began a quick descent towards that crater.

I landed on my behind, which really, _really_ hurt. As I shakily tried to stand and regain my footing, the cloud of dust cleared and the monster engulfed my field of vision once more. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and this thing _was_ actually trying to hurt me, I gave myself a quick pinch. Nope, wasn't dreaming. Definitely wasn't dreaming.

Without a lot of time to conjure up some grand battle plan at my disposal, my first instinct, besides run away, was to run up and punch it. So that's what I did – I punched the monster in the wooden leg, and it was as great a plan as it sounds. All I accomplished with that punch was a sore hand and unwanted attention from my big new "friend". That last part, well, it got me kicked – and very forcefully so – into the brick wall.

Clearly there was some super-strength magic in that pretty dress, because realistically that should have killed me, but it didn't. Don't get me wrong, it still hurt though… _a lot_. Once I realized that, even with my life-saving endurance, I was still not strong enough to merely beat the monster up, I tried to think of a different plan as I slid down off the wall. When I was at a loss for any useful ideas, at the best possible timing, the rabbit spoke up again.

"You need to use your magic! The power of spring! Without it, you'll never really get rid of that thing," she said, as if I knew what that meant or even remotely how to do it.

"Um… how exactly do I do whatever it is you just said?" I asked, because I honestly had no clue. I heard a tiny sigh before it kept talking.

"Ok, well, you need to close your eyes, and think really hard about what you want to happen. Then, when the time feels right, open your heart up to the magic and it'll come out!" The rabbit explained. With an explanation that vague, that rabbit could be a teacher here.

"I don't exactly know what that's supposed to mean, but I'll give it a try. I mean, I've got no better ideas." I replied, and took a deep breath. It was kind of nerve wracking to close my eyes when there was a giant monster still very clearly in front of me, probably more than willing to play target practice with me any second now, but I did it anyways. I closed my eyes, and all I could picture was the cascade of flowers from when I first turned into whatever the heck I currently was. The flowers twirling around so carefree, falling everywhere yet still seemingly focused on me. In that moment I realized what the answer had to be – flowers. Flowers everywhere! What could go wrong with a bunch of flowers, right?

I slowly opened my eyes, and looked up at the monster, who was preparing to fling the microphone in my direction again, but this time I was prepared. This time, I had my head in the game, and was ready to take this thing on. It's amazing what a little focus can do.

As the microphone came flying my way, I rolled to the side and decided what I had to do. Once again, I pushed myself and leaped high into the air, but this time it was intentional. As I flew towards the ceiling, I began to propel myself into a spin. By the time I was high above the monster's towering head, I was nearly like some kind of human tornado. The monster tried once more to fling the microphone at me, but the momentum of my spin sent it speeding directly back in the direction it came – knocking the monster to the floor.

I felt a surge of confidence, or maybe that was the magic, the more I spun in place. With a deep breath, I let out a loud sort of battle cry that filled the gym with a booming echo.

"Pretty Cure…"

Tiny flower petals began to appear out of thin air and float to the ground, and patches of flowers quickly burst out between the thin planks of the glossy wooden floor around the toppled and dazed monster.

"… Floral Jubilee!"

With those words, the few petals turned into an absolute downpour of all sorts of flowers, and the little meadow under the monster rapidly grew over it. As I kept spinning faster and faster, the floating flowers gained speed and created a funnel of their own. I raised my arms towards the florescent lights, and held them for a moment until I felt it was the right time to direct the energy I felt swelling up inside me towards the pile of earthen overgrowth absolutely littered with flowers on the gym floor. I flung my arms in that direction, and both my revolving body and the storm of flowers set course at full speed for the buried monster. I collided with the monster as the flower storm did, and the whole deal exploded with a brilliant light.

Next thing I knew I was left standing amongst a quickly fading haze of sparkling light. I looked around to see if the monster was still, for some reason, there and ready to throw me against any more brick walls – but that wasn't the case. All I saw were my unconscious fellow students and the staff, and a small glass shard that caught my eye as it twinkled on the floor at my feet. I bent down to pick it up, and I noticed I was wearing my capris again. As I straightened back up, I felt my glasses shifting on the bridge of my nose, and I adjusted them as I gave myself a quick once over to confirm whether I was back to normal or not. I was, and so was the crater and bent floorboards of the gym floor, and the Lily-shaped– or I guess, Cure Tulip-shaped – dent in the wall. I quickly shoved the alluring piece of glass in my pocket, alongside the rabbit phone that had somehow placed itself in the pocket of my capris as well. I noticed that the unconscious crowd was starting to wake up, so I quickly ran and returned to my seat so I wouldn't seem out of place… y'know, just some unknown weirdo student randomly standing in the middle of the gym. I wouldn't mind having some more people pay attention to me, but not that way.

Anyways, crazy day, huh? Yeah, it really was, and I'm still feeling it. Hence the mid-biology nap. Bio is one of my favourite subjects, I've never fallen asleep in it before, but after the exertion from that strange fight yesterday, I can't blame myself. It's the same reason I passed out as soon as I got home yesterday afternoon. Jeez, I thought that my grandma going to bed at 7:30 sometimes was early. If this whole fighting evil monsters thing becomes a routine, I'll have to start like… exercising or something to keep up with it. Ew.

Oh! There goes the bell. I guess it's time to head home, but instead of counting sheep immediately, I'll be interrogating the rabbit sitting in my bag when I get home. I seriously need to know what's up with this whole "Pretty Cure" thing, and if I've suddenly been voluntold for the new part time job I never wanted. I really hope not – I have too much homework to be saving the world.


	2. Searching For Answers

"Liiily…" a tiny voice called from the foot of my bed. I leaned up as far as I could with my textbook held against my chest and saw my tiny new friend looking up at me with her big ol' sparkly bunny eyes. Oh, and her name's Flora, by the way.

I learned that once I got home from school the other day. You know, _that_ day. I have since also got as much as I could out of her about this whole "Pretty Cure" thing, but even the explanations she offered didn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole situation honestly.

The way I'm getting it so far is that… um… there's this lady named Mother Nature, who I think may be _the_ Mother Nature from the way Flora talked about her. She watches over the Earth, like some kind of deity, and she has this glass crystal ball – I don't think it tells fortunes though. It's supposed to keep the seasons and the weather and stuff in check according to the bunny, but that part kind of hurts my head? How does that make sense? Magic meteorology? I don't know…

Anyways, so this other woman – "The Baroness" – broke it, and now Mother Nature's a statue because of that I guess. Somehow, that equals me turning into some superhero who has to fight bad guys, collect the pieces of that crystal ball and save her. Luckily though, it sounds like I won't have to do it alone. Flora told me that there are supposed to be three others like me, and that her friends went to find them – which is great, because finding friends is not exactly my forte.

"Liiiiiiiily…" Flora cried again, this time while she began trying to crawl up my leg. This time I gave in, gave my textbook a heave onto the floor, and lifted Flora up into my lap.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Can we go look for the others today? You promised." She sniffed in response.

"I suppose I did, didn't I?" I said, glancing out the window. It was still fairly early, and if I was going on some sort of manhunt, I'd probably need a good afternoon at it at least. "You do realize I have no idea where to even start, right?"

Her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her little bunny face. "That's okay! I can tell you where to go! I can kinda sense where my friends are, I just need you to take me there."

Well, that'll probably come in handy. I guess it wouldn't hurt to go try, right? I don't really have much else to do today since I finished my homework last night and all I was going to do was read ahead a bit. I could probably use the break.

"Alright then, we can go out and take a look around." I said, placing her back on the bed beside me as I began to shuffle off of it. "But give me a chance to throw something on first… it's probably quite chilly out."

She nodded and rolled over on her back, gazing up at the ceiling with a silly grin still on her face. I threw on some jeans and my oversized tan pullover and quickly ran a brush through my disheveled bed head. As one final thought after situating my glasses on my face, I grabbed an over the shoulder bag from my shelf and opened it towards the bed, motioning for Flora to hop inside. I figured it was probably a good idea to hide the conspicuous talking pink rabbit while out and about.

As we headed out, the cool autumn air hit me and it felt really nice blowing through my hair. It was that nice temperature where it's not freezing yet but it's not still sweltering hot like in the summer and it's just a wonderful happy medium. If I had any, this would be capris weather.

Walking through the streets of Concordia, it wasn't too busy for a Saturday. There were a few people also out for a stroll, a few kids out in the elementary school's soccer field and the occasional car buzzing down the road probably a lot faster than they should be. I made my way through the town, not exactly knowing where I was headed. Every now and then, Flora would wiggle and squirm her way up until her head was peeking out of the bag she sat in, and she would tell me which way she "felt" one of her friends were. It felt like a bit of a wild goose chase, and I think we backtracked a few times, so I'm kind of glad nobody is really paying attention to me. I think I'd look a bit weird just aimlessly wandering all over the place.

We spent pretty much all afternoon out and about, with one stop at Tims to grab the two of us a little snack. With the way Flora demolished the Timbits I bought her, I had a feeling I would be buying her a lot of those in the future, but who can blame her? Timbits are _good._

Anyways, as the day stretched on, and I was starting to get a bit tired, I decided to take a little break before heading homeward. With Flora's… misdirection… we hadn't really achieved much, but I did get out for a nice walk. I made my way over to the little playground that was within my line of sight and plopped down on one of the swings with a sigh. I reached into my bag and gently lifted Flora out, once again placing her on my lap. A nice little go on the swing would probably do us both some good.

My pocket buzzed and I slid my new phone out to check out the source of the vibration. It was still a bit weird having such a new looking phone, with the touch screen and all, considering my last one was much more… primitive. Hopefully this one won't break quite as easily. The buzz was just a reminder I had set to go over some notes for one of my classes, but as I closed that out, the one app that was very unique to my new phone caught my eye. A few days ago, I activated it and transformed into a magical warrior, and now I'm sitting on a swing with the talking rabbit who gave the phone to me. Part of me is still waiting to wake up from this all, but the other part… kind of feels like this whole experience just feels… right.

"Flora, I'm sorry we couldn't find your friends today. Concordia's a pretty big town to search and, heck, I don't even know if they're _in_ Concordia." I looked down at her fluffy head as I shoved the phone back in my pocket. She looked up and her eyes met mine as she smiled somewhat sadly.

"It's okay, Lily. We tried."

"Maybe we can come out again tomorrow?" I said sincerely, that is, until I felt a pain sear through my calves, telling me another hours long walk might not be a good idea. "Maybe."

"That would be nice. I would really like to find them… They're probably alone, and being alone is scary. I don't want them to be scared."

"That's very sweet of you, Flora. But you don't have to worry about being alone yourself, because you've got me now, right?" I smiled and patted her head. She nuzzled up into my hand as I did so and giggled.

I got up off the swing and grabbed my bag off of the ground beside me, holding it open for her to leap back in again for the ride home. Once she settled in, I began to slowly make my way in the direction of my home – slowly only because I was really starting to feel the effect of my walk in my legs. Maybe I should do this more often so it doesn't hurt as much… or maybe I should just exercise more in general.

"Hey, maybe when we get home, you can tell me a bit about your friends, eh Flora? And then maybe we can throw on a movie. Do you like princesses? I have a lot of princess movies I think you'll like…" I casually chatted with my new pink pal all the way home, for some reason no longer caring about whether or not anyone looked at me weird. Being with Flora gave me a warm feeling, even amidst the slight chill of the cooling night. As weird as the circumstances are, I'm glad to have a new friend.


	3. Working Together

"E-Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

I looked up from my notebook to see a girl standing next to my station, gazing at me kind of curiously. I think I've seen her around before… I mean she obviously goes to Concordia too, and there aren't a lot of hijab-wearing girls around this white-as-bread town, but I don't think I've ever properly met her. But hey, I'm not going to complain about her taking a seat next to me.

"Yeah… wait no- I mean no, it's not. Feel free to sit there." I sighed and motioned to the hard plastic seat of the stool to my right. She smiled and gave me a little nod as she sat down.

"I-I don't think we've met, I'm Lily." I said to the girl as she began to take out her supplies for the class. She saw my extended hand and I heard her gasp a little before quickly taking it and giving it a gentle shake. Her hand was really cold for some reason. She must've just come from the washroom or something.

"No, I don't believe we have, but it's nice to meet you. I'm Marya. I just got switched into this class." She replied, as she uncapped a pen and began to twirl it between her fingers. "Would you believe it took me a week and a half to get through to my counsellor to switch into this level physics? It's like a shark tank down there this time of year." She shook her head slightly.

"Oh I can believe it." I knew far too well how hard it is to adjust things when the administration folk don't put you in all the classes you need. Especially when you're a grad and you don't really have any time to make up for it later. There is no _later_.

"So, you like physics much or…?" I let my question trail off, knowing that there were a lot of people who just took the sciences because they had to, not because they wanted to… although why someone would be in a high level physics class if they didn't like it or need it is beyond me. Marya kind of laughed at my question, but it sounded a little defeated.

"Well, no, not per say, but I do like making my parents happy by getting into a good university," she sighed, "and passing high level STEM classes with flying colors does a pretty good job of that. What about you?"

Ok, that made a bit of sense. She and I have a fair amount in common in that sense, but I do like taking these sorts of classes, unlike my new desk buddy here. Science is my jam… ok, that sounded way lamer than it should've. Never mind.

"Heh, I actually do like physics. I mean, not as much as bio, but its still kind of fun." I replied.

"Oh, well, that's good then." She said with a smile as she turned her attention to Mr. Coates, our teacher, who just entered the room. I guess that's the end of that. Maybe I'll get to talk to her again once we get through some of the lecture-y part of the period.

About a half an hour passed of checking homework from the previous night and listening to Mr. Coates talk about what we would be doing for the rest of the week. He already brought up the science fair, aka the _coolest_ event of the school year, even though its still a few months away. That's good though. Extra preparation time never hurts, especially when there are so many possibilities out there for projects. I wonder what I'll do this year…

"Lily?"

Marya's voice caught my attention and snapped me out of my internal brainstorming slash daydreaming session. I turned to look at her to see what it was she wanted.

"Yes?"

"What were you thinking of doing for your fair project? If you have anything in mind, that is." She asked, and raised her eyebrow at me as she waited for my response. Honestly, I don't have anything exact in mind just yet, but that's what the rest of this period has been allocated to – ideas.

"I don't really, but I wanna do something even neater than the past few years, whatever I do…" I tapped my fingers against my chin as I felt my face twist up in its usual "deep in thought" way. Wait a minute… maybe Marya could give me some inspiration, or better yet… group project!

"Do you have any ideas? If you wanted, maybe we could work on something together?" I shrugged as my eyes shyly fell towards the desk. In the corner of them, I could see that surprise upon Marya's face that she had earlier when I offered her a handshake.

"Working… together? I- um… if you would like to, I would be very pleased with that. I have a few ideas, actually, if you want to run through them." She smiled kinda sheepishly.

"S-sure! That would be great. What were you thinking?"

"Well, I really like music, so I wanted to do something involving that, or at least sound in general. I googled it just now, and I came across a few ideas… one was about musicians having heightened hearing abilities, and the other was about music and bacteria-"

Bacteria! That's bio! I know that! Perfect!

"Bacteria." I interjected. My eyes went wide as I almost jumped off of my stool in her direction. She flinched at the movement.

"Yes, bacteria. With that one, there were two possible ways to go – whether or not music affects bacterial growth, and whether or not the different varieties have differing effects on said bacterial growth."

"That sounds like a great project! I mean, it kind of puts our interests together, so it should be fun for both of us."

"You're interested… in bacteria?" She looked at me with a slightly disgusted face, but one that still wanted to be polite about it.

"Bacteria is biology, and biology is my jam." Okay… that sounded even _stupider_ out loud. I really need to slow my roll with that saying. "This will be good. Does it sound good to you?"

Still a bit taken aback, but clearly relieved that I'm not some weirdo – although that's debatable – Marya let out a little airy laugh and nodded as she started to scribble down the information in her binder.

"Have you ladies picked an idea yet?" Mr. Coates asked as he finally reached us in his rounds.

"Yes, sir. Lily and I are going to work collaboratively to study the relationship between music and bacterial growth."

"Huh. Bacteria. I see. Not as physics-related as I'd like, but I suppose anything is free game for the fair. Good job." He said, nodding to himself before he walked on to the next group. Before long, he made his way back up to the front of the room, and began shutting the Smartboard down – a clear indication that class would soon be over.

"Yeah, good job," I said quietly to myself, before looking over at my new science pal, "good job, partner." She looked at me and smiled at my comment.

"Good job, indeed."

The bell went off a minute or two later, and we both began to pack up and head home for the day. Marya took a bit longer than me to get everything all put away, so I felt the need to wait for her, which was certainly a first. Usually the only way I'll wait around in a class is if I need to speak to the teacher. She didn't take too long, and when she finished, she straightened up to see me standing in front of her still.

"Oh! Lily, what are you still doing here? Are you waiting on me?" She jumped a bit as she asked, causing herself to have to adjust her headscarf once she realized that I was there.

"Yeah, I just thought I would… not leave you here, y'know, the last one left." I felt my face get a little hot as a spoke, and ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to be nonchalant about the whole thing. Marya just smiled at me again.

"That's very nice of you. Do you not have anywhere to be? It _is_ the end of the day. Are you going to miss a bus? I wouldn't want you to miss your bus." She gasped and cupped her face in her hands as a very concerned expression spread across her face.

"N-no, I'm fine, I just walk home. But I appreciate your concern." It's very sweet of her to care like that…

"Well, if you wanted, I'm sure I could get my sisters to swing by your place on our way home. I'm positive they would not mind." Sisters? There's more pretty geniuses in this town? Since when? … Wait. Did I just…? Okay, well, Marya _is_ pretty… pretty.

"That is very nice of _you._ I would very much appreciate that, if it's okay with them."

"Let's go, then, shall we?" Marya held out her arm, motioning for me to go and have her follow me out. I walked out and down the hall with her. We made our way towards the bus zone pretty silently, and it was kind of uncomfortable honestly. I mean, we would look at one another every once in a while and half-smile, but that's about it.

When we approached the bus doors of the cafeteria, the other kids beginning to run towards us from just outside the doors certainly caught my eye. They looked pretty scared, and I got a weird twisted feeling in my gut. Just then, my phone-holding pocket buzzed, and my suspicion was confirmed. Another one of those monsters was out there. Great.

"Uh, Marya…"

"I think something is wrong out there… We should go help." She interrupted, grabbing my arm and pulling me through the crowd of students rushing in the opposite direction. Pushing through the heavy metal doors, we skidded to a stop just in front of the row of buses.

"What in the…" Marya whispered, as she drew my attention to the main attraction of the bus loading zone. It was a very tall, very menacing bus standing upright, and looking like it wanted to hurt every and anything in its path.

"Marya, you should probably follow the rest of them inside now…" I said, haphazardly waving one arm behind me as the other reached for my phone. Flora was at home today, but I still had to deal with this right here and now.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to just stay here? Do you have a _death wish_?" Marya looked at me with a face I could tell was filled with fear from the corner of my eye. At this point, I probably look like I _do_ have a death wish.

"If you won't go inside, then at least step back." I finally broke my gaze from the monster for a moment to look Marya in the eye with a very hard "I'm serious" look. Her face scrunched into a very puzzled expression, but I just took a deep breath and focused once more on the problem at hand.

"Pretty Cure Renaissance de Joie!" I called out as I copied the process from the last time I did this, turning on my phone, opening the app and swiping the icon on the screen. It lit up and I was blinded by the light once more. After reliving the transformation process, the light faded and my eyes readjusted on the chaos in front of me. I was finally Cure Tulip once again.

"Lily…?" Marya whispered, probably with a fair amount of shock. I didn't bother to look and see. Instead, I decided to run at the bus monster full speed, taking a leap into the air once I was closer.

The bus finally noticed me, once I was soaring above it. I did that ballet pointy toe thing with one foot and tried my hardest to put all my weight and force into slamming full force into its face. Would the front of the bus be the face in this case? I'm not sure, but that's what I'm going with.

Somehow, it worked. I smashed that thing right into the ground. A lot better than my first super leap, I'll say that much. Too bad that wasn't enough to incapacitate it altogether, but if that were the case, my job would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Before long, the bus rose out of the cracked pavement hole I created with it, and was fully ready to retaliate. I waited where I landed from my backflip off of the ground slam, and watched for what it decided to do. It wasn't exactly the smartest sentient inanimate object, so it would probably match my force with that of its own. All that mattered now was-

"Lily!"

The panicked voice broke my focus and snapped my attention over to the girl I left standing by the doors, alone and afraid. I had almost forgotten she was there.

"Marya… please go hide somewhere, I don't want you to get hu-"

I was quickly interrupted by a strong wave of energy hitting me like a brick wall, and throwing me into the air and across the road. Darn! I got distracted… and ow… it sure hurt. I think the road may be worse than the side of a gym wall.

" _Lily!_ " I heard Marya's even more panicked cry, but I didn't see her until she was kneeling over me with her face of concern returning from before.

"Are you okay? That was my fault wasn't it? I'm so sorry I didn't want you to get hurt!" She frantically babbled on, and I could see her start to tear up a little. I raised my arm up to her shoulder – although it ached quite a bit to do so – and gave it a reassuring pat.

"I'm o-okay. Just a little roughed up. I'll be fine, don't worry." I tried to smile, but it kind of came out like a wince instead. Marya's face got even sadder.

"Here, let me help you up and I'll try to-"

She didn't get to finish, as the very speedy but very dense bus finally figured out where I had landed. It slammed its wheel-fist down towards us, and I thought we were toast… or pancakes… but I opened my eyes to see what looked like shattering glass around us. I looked up at Marya, who had turned around to face the monster. She had her arms crossed over her face in a defensive sort of cringe motion.

Her bag that was still hanging over her shoulder began to wiggle and squirm beside her. She broke her pose to see what was happening, but I think I had a clue what… or rather, who it might be.

"Let me outta here!" A tiny voice cried with a lot of frustration for such a tiny voice. Marya reached down, unhooked the little clasp and lifted the flap open. Out crawled a little bear cub… with bright blue fur. That must be one of Flora's friends that she was had me out looking for. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Its alive?! It wasn't alive on the sidewalk this morning!" Marya jumped back a bit from the bear, but I sat up and leaned towards it.

"Hey, you must be Tundra, right?" I asked it. The bear turned its adorably fuzzy but incredibly agitated glance towards me, and its eyes widened as it saw me.

"You're a Pretty Cure! That's great! Now you, tell this girl to listen to me and become one too!" The bear ordered. I looked up at Marya, who was staring at the Tundra in disbelief. I wonder if she wonders if she's dreaming yet?

"So… um… we don't have a lot of time to discuss the details, but, would you mind giving me a hand? You're clearly the one… or at least one of the ones, I've been looking around for, and I'd really appreciate the help-"

"If I do whatever it is you're asking… will it stop that… _thing_ … from trying to hurt everyone?" Marya looked me right in the eye with quite a bit of fear. I understood that fear. I still felt that fear. I was not yet over that fear myself.

"Yeah, if we work together it should." I shrugged half-heartedly. Marya looked down at Tundra for a moment and then back at me.

"Work together…" She held her hand out to Tundra, who turned around with a determined smile on her face. "Okay. Let's do this." She paused. "Whatever it is."

"Great!" Tundra shouted, and produced something similar from her chest to what Flora created for me. Another little crystal, but this one took more of a snowflake looking shape. She pressed it tight in her paws, and next thing you know, there's another "unique" phone being placed in Marya's hands. She turned it on and looked at the screen that was already on the app and kinda seemed to be sparkling. Hesitating for a moment, she cautiously traced a circle on the screen with her finger. As Marya was engulfed in a brilliant light, I stood up and waited for it to be over – I wasn't sure how long it _actually_ took to transform, because this magic thing probably doesn't care to be that relative to real time, so I waited. Waited, and kept an eye on the bus monster that was trying to get a glassy shard out of its gate.

After about thirty seconds or so, the light faded, and before me stood a somewhat different person. I mean, it was Marya, obviously, but she _looked_ different. Her hijab was now a pale blue, and she was wearing a dress in white and the same blue to match. Oh, her shoes were really cute little blue Mary Jane-type shoes. Her outfit seemed to suit her a lot.

"Freeze!" She called out. "The chilly wonder of winter…" she gently rested her face in her hands, kind of like earlier. "I am Cure Snowy!" She finished with a twirl. Huh. Nice touch.

"Cure Snowy! That's a pretty _cool_ name, eh?" I shot her a wink. She didn't look impressed.

"So now what?" She looked at me as if she were waiting for some sort of instruction. Like I knew what I was doing. I have technically been a Pretty Cure longer, but like, I didn't exactly come prepared with a game plan. I'm still a newbie too! … Do people say "newbie" anymore?

Before I could answer her, the once again refocused bus monster came charging towards us and I acted quickly and without very much thought put into it. I faced the monster and held out my hands.

"Pretty Cure Floral Jubilee!" I began to spin with the flowers that materialized and after gathering enough momentum, aimed them in the direction of the bus. The force of the dainty-yet-powerful petals made it stumble a bit, and I knew this was the moment for Marya- I mean, Cure Snowy, to act.

"Snowy! Now!"

"Now what?" She looked at me like I was pop quizzing her or something. Luckily, Tundra took care of the brief explanation for me.

"Use your magic, Snowy! Just focus hard and it'll come out!" She said, jumping about and excitedly flapping her arms about.

"My… magic…? Um… okay? I'll try." She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face hard. I didn't think anything was going to happen for a moment, until I felt a few snowflakes fall on my face.

"Pretty Cure Twinkling Avalanche!" She cried, throwing her arms out to the side. Those few snowflakes very quickly multiplied, and in the blink of an eye, the bus monster was buried in a mountain of snow. In September. As the snow began to glimmer and fade away, there was no more monster, but I still saw something sitting there in its place. I ran over and picked up the small, barely noticeable shard of glass that was on the pavement that had smoothed itself out and returned from very damaged to only "slightly" worn. Another piece of that crystal ball thing in the bag.

I looked over at Marya, who had transformed back into her normal self and was bending down to pick up her bag and the talking blue bear standing next to it. I looked down and noticed my own outfit had reverted as well, and I let out a sigh.

"Well are you coming, Lily? It's getting a little late, I imagine your family is missing you." Marya stood, motioning for me to follow her. I looked over at the school doors and decided it would probably be best to skadoodle outta here before everyone came flooding back out.

"Oh yeah! I'm coming." I looked around for my own book bag, only to realize it was still on my shoulder. I ran up after Marya, who had begun to walk towards the parking lot to meet her sisters. It didn't take much work to deduce that they were the ones honking the horn and waving their arms out the windows as we approached.

"Sorry we're late, Mar. We ran into a bit of traffic on the way." Her sister in the driver's seat said. The one in the passenger's seat leaned over and looked me up and down.

Noticing that her sister noticed me, Marya spoke up. "That's alright… Um, Nadeen, Ameenah, this is Lily, I was wondering if perhaps we could drop her off on the way? It is my fault she isn't home already."

"Yeah sure, no problem. Hop in kiddos. If there's anything in the way just find another spot for it." The driving sister shrugged and pointed towards the backseat. Marya opened the back door and motioned for me to follow her in the car. Once we were situated in the back, all buckled up and on the way out of the parking lot, the passenger seat sister twisted to look back at us from the front.

"So Marya, is this your new girlfriend?" She wagged her eyebrow at her little sister.

G-Girlfriend? Me? What? No. No! I mean, I'm flattered but like… I just met her! Girlfriend. Girlfriend? No no no. I looked over at Marya, and she was redder than I felt I was.

"Ameenah!"


	4. Making an Impression

"Mom?"

Mom was sitting on the couch, legs folded and with a cup of tea, and apparently completely engorged in her latest murder mystery novel, so much so that she couldn't hear me talking to her.

" _Mom_."

She finally looked up at me with a bewildered look on her face. That's the thing with my mom – and I think it's totally something I've inherited – once she's got her nose in a book she's gone to the world.

"What's up Buttercup?" She responded. I could already tell she wanted to get my question out of the way and get back to where she was in her reading. I had probably interrupted her mid-confession or something.

"Can I have a friend over in a bit?" I asked. I knew she wouldn't have a problem with it, but I knew she _would_ have a problem with strangers just showing up in her house.

Something about that question suddenly inspired Mom to lay her book down. I figured out what that something was as soon as I caught the twinkle in her eye and she opened her mouth.

"A friend?" She shot me one of _those_ looks. "Or a _friend_?"

Oh, Mom. Not this again.

"Just a friend. A girl in my class. That's all. Slow your roll, Mom," I sighed. Why does everyone seem to think I'm dating Marya? Either it's a family thing, or magical monster battles count as dates all of a sudden.

"Darn… well, yes, you can have her over," she jumped up off of the couch and wandered into the kitchen. "Is she staying for supper? What does she like?" She began to route around in the fridge and the cupboards, and I could hear nothing but all the boxes, and cans and bottles shuffling around as she did so.

"Um… that's probably not necessary… but thanks, Mom." I walked over and gave her an awkward side hug, then headed for the stairs. The last thing I needed was to have my mom cook for the first guest I've had in a while. Sending Marya home with food poisoning wouldn't be a good impression.

As I walked into my room, I noticed Flora was still curled up on my bed as she was when I left to go downstairs. I swear that rabbit does nothing but sleep when in this house. Sitting down on the edge carefully so as not to disrupt her nap, I picked up my phone off the nightstand and opened up my conversation with Marya.

 _Everything's good, mom's cool with you coming over. I already gave you the address, right?_

I sent it off, and just a few seconds later the phone buzzed in my hand, startling me as it did. I'm still not really use to this texting thing.

 _Alright, I'll be over in about 15 mins, probably. Whenever Ameenah finishes doing her hair… lol. And yes, I have it. Thanks_ J

With that out of the way, I figured I should get things ready for Marya and I to get some work done when she gets here. She suggested we try to get a head start on our project, so I went to the library and found a book on bacteria to reference. Fun reading material, believe it or not.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a knock on the door from downstairs. I leapt off my bed and dashed out and down the stairs to answer it, mostly out of fear for how my mom would manage to embarrass me within the first few seconds of Marya being in my house. As I ran for the door, I saw my mom's head perk up from the couch with a wicked smirk on her face. I stuck my tongue out at her on the way to the porch.

By the time I swung the door open to reveal Marya on the other side, I was huffing for lack of air from my mad dash. Her sweet smile quickly changed to a face of concern as she took in the sight of me, so I waved it off and motioned for her to come in. She chuckled and stepped in as I closed the door and locked it. She slipped off her shoes just as my mom came around the corner.

"So, Buttercup, who's your friend?" Mom asked, looking between me and Marya with a hand on her hip, fingers tapping. I rolled my eyes at her tone.

"Mom, this is Marya," I said, motioning to Marya, who smiled at my mom, "and Marya, this is my mother," I motioned over to my mother who was still wearing that frustrating "is she your girlfriend" expression from earlier.

"Hi Marya, nice to meet you. The name's Poppy," Mom held out a hand to Marya, who took it and lightly shook.

"Nice to meet you too, ma'am," Marya replied, eyes darting around nervously.

"So what are you girls got planned for today?" Mom asked. Her gaze dropped to the bag hanging over Marya's shoulder, which seemed to have a few books in it. Probably whatever she decided to look into about the music stuff. Good thing, I don't really know much about music.

"We're doing our science fair project together, so we're gonna go up to my room and do some reading for it," I replied quickly, knowing where my mother was going to go with this conversation if we stayed much longer. I'll never understand my mother's insistence on trying to set me up with every person my age I ever meet.

"Oh that sounds… neat. Well, I'm sure you'll have fun with that," Mom laughed, thankfully noticing my desire to bail. She turned to leave and go back to her reading, but stopped and turned to look at us once more.

"Would you girls like anything to drink before you get to work? Water? Tea? Hot chocolate? Pop?" Mom asked, mostly to Marya, because obviously I can get a drink in my own house if I wanted one. We both shook our heads lightly, and I nodded for her to follow me towards the stairs.

"Let me know if you girls need anything, I'm just a shout away!" She called after us as I started to jog up the stairs with Marya in tow.

"Your mother seems nice," Marya said with a laugh as we reached the top of the stairs. I led us into my room, where I almost tripped on Flora, who had finally gotten up and was waiting behind the door for us to return.

"Flora!" Tundra's tiny voice called from inside Marya's bag, as the small blue bear shoved her head out from underneath the flap. Marya lifted her out of the bag and gently placed her on the floor next to Flora who waved at her friend.

"It's been way too long! I'm so happy to see you made it here okay!" Flora said with tears filling her eyes as she stepped over and wrapped Tundra in a little hug.

"I was worried about you too! I just hope the others are fine as well. Hopefully they're finding the other two Pretty Cure!" Tundra replied, patting Flora's back with her paw.

I looked down and them and felt a smile spread across my face at their exchange. It does remind me though, I wonder who our other teammates are supposed to be, and when we're going to meet them. I hope it's before our next fight against one of those ugly monsters. The more the merrier, y'know?

"There are… more of us?" Marya asked quietly, and I guess Tundra hadn't disclosed that particular tidbit of information since our first fight together. I walked over and plopped down on my bed, crossing my legs after a solid bounce and patting the space beside me for Marya. She was kind of out of it – shocked I guess – but shook her head, then gently sat down beside me. The fairies waltzed over merrily and sat themselves down on the floor in front of us.

"How many more are there?" Marya continued, chewing her lip while she sorted this out in her head.

"Well, Flora says that there are four of the fairies, so I assume that means there are two other people who will be joining us at some point. I don't know much beyond that," I replied with a non-committal shrug. Flora was so incredibly cryptic about these things, so I didn't really have much to offer.

"Wow… that's… reassuring," Marya whispered. She gasped and looked up at me, and her face started to darken with a deep blush. "That's not to say I don't appreciate you, Lily, I-I just think that a bigger group would probably be more useful, a-and efficient for this whole situation…" She looked down at her lap as she twiddled her fingers.

"No, no, I get it. I think we could use all the help we could get, honestly." I laughed, trying to be comforting or something. I'm not bothered by what she said, I know I need work at being a superhero. It doesn't exactly come easily to me.

"Oh, yes. Of course." She looked up for a moment and smiled.

"When did you become Cure Tulip?" Marya asked, after a few moments of an incredibly uncomfortable silence. Her eyes were darting around, and her obvious nerves were starting to rub off on me.

"Uh… the first day of school, believe it or not," I scratched my head and looked over at her with a smile. She smiled back at me with a crooked little smile that was actually pretty cute. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering how much longer you've been doing this. Not that much, it seems," she sighed. I reached over and put my hand on hers, which was yet again, very cold to the touch.

"I know we're both really new to this, and neither of us really know what exactly it is we're supposed to be doing, or even why we were chosen to do it, but we've got each other at least. Everything should be fine as long as we're not alone, don't you think?"

Marya was staring quite intently at our joined hands, but she broke her gaze and looked me in the eye with a very serious look, as if she were wondering if I really meant it. I did, and hopefully it came through. After a few seconds of increasingly uncomfortable scrutiny, she began to laugh.

"Yes, I think so. Maybe we'll manage to save the world or whatever after all," she said, lifting her other hand and reaching over to gently pat my hand that was on top of hers before pulling them both away. She leaned down to shuffle through her bag of books and pulled out a very thick notebook. As she laid it open on the bed, I could see a few articles sticking out of it, probably about previous studies on our topic.

We chatted for probably almost an hour about how we were going to conduct our research, what our hypothesis was going to be, what kind of music we'd use, and as many other fine details we could sort out at this point. Interestingly enough, Marya plays piano, and her sisters also play instruments too! Cello and flute I think she said? She suggested that perhaps we could get the three of them to do a live performance that I can record a video of instead of just playing a CD. I honestly think that would be super impressive! Knock Mr. Coates, and all those other judges' socks off!

"So… that's that, I guess. Not much else we can do at this point," I said, closing the book I had since taken up in my lap. Marya was thumbing through one of the journal articles she had brought.

"I suppose so, short of starting the actual experimentation," she replied, laying down the papers and looking up at me. She let out a little sigh and bit her lip.

"Well then… I… uh… what do you wanna do now? Unless you just want to go home, or have somewhere else to be…" I rambled, desperately not wanting to seem like I'm forcing her to stay _or_ to leave. I would ideally like her to come back some time, and driving her away for good is not really a good way to encourage that.

"N-no, I don't really, I was kind of expecting this to take a little longer, but I don't mind sticking around for a while if you'd like," she shrugged. "Nor do I have a preference for what we do."

I thought about that for a moment – what _could_ we do? I'm not letting my mom cook her anything. Maybe _we_ could cook supper? Ooh, that's not a bad idea. What does she like, I wonder?

"How do you feel about supper?" I asked, glancing over at the time on my phone. It was around half past three, giving us plenty of time if we started now.

"I like to have it, but I'm guessing that's not what you meant," Marya chuckled. "No, I wouldn't mind staying for supper."

"I meant more along the lines of us cooking it together as something to do," I added. I guess I should've made that a little clearer in the first place.

"Oh! That sounds fun," she nodded, and began to put all the books and supplies she had brought back in her bag.

"Great! That's what we'll do," I said, getting up off of the bed and sending my book flying to the floor. Whoops. I honestly forgot it was in my lap. It landed with a thud next to where Flora and Tundra were sitting having a little rest. Flora leaped at the sound of the impact and shot me a very frightened and concerned look before realizing it was just the book and turning to lie back down.

"Ok guys, Marya and I are gonna go make supper, we'll bring you some when it's all done," I said to the two of them on the floor. They both looked up at the same time and nodded.

"Let's go," I said, redirecting my attention to Marya, who had also stood and was waiting for me to lead her.

"So, what kind of food do you like?" I asked as we descended the stairs. Marya made a soft little "hm" noise, and her face scrunched up while she thought about it.

"I'm not particularly picky, as long as there's no meat," she answered after a moment of consideration. Huh, no meat?

"Are you a vegetarian?" I asked as we reached the bottom of the stairs and I led her around the corner to head for the kitchen.

"N-no, not technically" she said, pointing to her scarf.

"Huh, I didn't know that was a thing. That's cool, no meat then." I nodded and smiled reassuringly. I really didn't know that there was a no-meat thing for Muslims. I should probably look some of these things up later if we are going to keep being friends, which _is_ what I would like to happen.

"What are you girls up to? How's the studying, or project, or whatever is you were working on going?" Mom called out from the adjacent room where she was standing up from the couch and beginning to walk in our direction.

"Good, we're done for now. Marya and I are going to cook some supper… but we're not quite sure what yet." I shrugged. I hope she doesn't offer to help…

"Well, soup is always a good staple food. How does that sound?" Mom suggested. "Oh yes, I could really go for some soup, that sounds like a great plan." She patted her stomach and licked her lips with a bit of exaggeration.

What a silly woman my mom is. I shook my head at her and laughed.

"Soup sounds wonderful. Do you mind if it is just a vegetable soup though?" Marya asked quietly, smiling shakily at my mom. Mom reached over and patted her shoulder.

"Of course not. I can't wait to taste what you two cook up," she said before she took off in the direction of the hall. Probably to give us a bit of space.

"Ok, so I'll hunt down the stuff for the broth, after I grab you a cutting board and some veggies," I said, walking over to the fridge, swinging the door open and bending down to inspect the crisper drawer. I grabbed the bag of carrots, an onion, the part squash and part turnip that were wrapped up in the corner and piled them in my arms. Closing the door with a little kick, I stepped over to the counter in front of Marya and emptied my findings in front of her. I quickly grabbed a cutting board and a knife and handed them to her, shooting her a quick thumbs up. She laughed as she started to cut and peel the carrots.

After I got the stock and water combo on the stove, I started to help Marya with the vegetables, grabbing a few potatoes off of the other counter and beginning to peel them. Marya was done with the carrots at this point and had moved on to the onion.

As she sniffed and blinked away a few small tears, she looked at the peeled potatoes, then up at me. "Do you have a bowl you could put them in? If you put them in water after you peel them they won't go brown so fast."

Huh. Another thing I did not know. Marya is like a fountain of knowledge today. Ok, honestly she's probably like it every day – she seems really smart anyways. I nodded and laid down my knife so I could grab and fill a bowl. I placed the potato chunks in and returned to my peeling and chopping.

By the time we had everything all chopped up – which was a far quieter ordeal than I was expecting, but I guess we were both focused on the tasks at hand – it was almost four o'clock. I dumped the last of the vegetables in the pot and flicked up the burner switch to medium high. Leaning back against the counter, I let out a content little sigh.

"It's been fun hanging out with you today, thanks for coming over," I said, looking over at Marya, who was checking her phone. She looked up with a start and smiled, shoving the phone back in her pocket.

"I've enjoyed this as well," she paused and laughed, "even if we were doing homework for most of it. So thank _you_ for having me."

"Heh, no problem. W-we should, y'know, maybe do this again sometime?" I said, my face suddenly feeling very flushed from nerves. "I mean obviously we're going to get together to work on our project again, b-but I mean the hanging out thing," I scratched my head. "Not that we necessarily have to do it here, or have to do homework when we do." Goodness gracious why am I getting so flustered? I guess I just don't want to fool up my first real friendship in a while… yes, that's why asking her to hang out is making me act so silly. That's totally it.

"I would like that," she replied with an incredibly warm smile that somehow managed to melted away the nerves I was almost shaking from. "Perhaps next time you come over to my house. As long as you don't mind the third degree from my family, that is," she said with a roll of her eyes. I knew the feeling, with Ms. "is she your _girlfriend_?" somewhere down the hall.

"I wouldn't mind. I'm sure they're lovely people, if they're _your_ family," I shrugged. Marya's face darkened with a deep blush and I very quickly realized I had accidentally snuck an embarrassingly sweet compliment in there. I'm sure my face was about to match hers in seconds.

"So how's the soup coming?" Mom said as she walked in the room, taking a few deep sniffs as she approached the stove. She noticed the weird tension and red faces between the two of us and a sly little smirk snuck up on her face that she didn't even try to hide. _Oh no_ , I'm never going to live this down.

"Sh-should be just about done," Marya said quietly, trying to salvage the situation. I hopped on that train and grabbed a fork to poke the veggies with as a test. Each one I poked almost fell apart around the fork, so I switched the burner off and grabbed three bowls. Mom took note and began to collect the spoons and napkins to set the table. Marya came over to help me take up the soup, and let out a little "mmm" sound as the smell of it hit her. I couldn't blame her, it smelled really good. I can only hope it turned out just as tasty.

The three of us sat around the table and made a bit of idle chitchat while we worked on our bowls of soup. It had turned out really good, and we were all really clearly enjoying it. I think we all had at least seconds – completely cleared the pot, aside from what we saved for the fairies. As my mom finished up her last bowl, she leaned back in the chair and rubbed her stomach.

"Boy, Marya, I'm gonna have to get you to come over and cook for us more often," she said with a wink. I rolled my eyes at her. Yes, mom, enlist my new friend as our personal chef on her first visit. Wonderful.

"Hah, well, if Lily wouldn't mind, I'd love to," Marya replied as she blew on a spoonful before putting it in her mouth.

"Oh, I know Lily wouldn't mind having you around again _at all_ ," Mom said, looking directly at me, unwaveringly, with that same smirk still on her face.

" _Mooooooom_." Why does she do this to me?


	5. A Strange Feeling

I could've sworn something bad was going to happen today. I just woke up with that kind of eerie feeling, y'know? The one that gives you a shiver and makes you feel like someone's over your shoulder. Which explains why I've been on edge all day I guess – checking every nook and cranny of my surroundings everywhere I went, fidgeting uncomfortably. Most unusually for me, I couldn't even focus enough to read.

"Lily, are you okay?" Marya asked, causing me to look up from my book, and I laid it open flat on the table. She was sitting across from me picking at a salad, with concern written on her face in the way her eyebrows furrowed and her lips creased down slightly. I smiled halfheartedly, hating being the cause of others' concern. Especially her, now that we were becoming friends. We'd been eating lunch together in the courtyard here every day since she visited the house.

"Yeah, I guess," I sighed, resting my head in my hand. "I've just had this kind of uneasy feeling all day. I don't know what's wrong with me." I paused as her head cocked to the side. "It's nothing really though, I'm fine."

"So it's not just me then," she pursed her lips before putting another forkful in her mouth. As she chewed, her gaze remained fixed on me, but she didn't seem to be looking _at_ me. More like she was thinking about something. Maybe she also had the weird on-edge feeling too? She certainly didn't show it, if that was the case.

"I'm not sure why, but I woke up with such a weird feeling this morning, and I haven't been able to shake it," I said, recalling that not only had I woke up with this feeling, but had woken up from an unsettling nightmare before it. Marya and I were in a fight with one of those monsters, and we were trapped. Marya was crying for my help – or maybe she was trying to help me, I'm not sure – and I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, and it was honestly terrifying. So I had reduced the weird feeling to an after effect of the dream. Nightmares always put me on edge, anyways… but if it wasn't just me, maybe there was something to it?

"That's exactly how I feel. Do you think that there's something to it?" She asked, glancing at the time on her phone, and moving to pack up her food. There were about twenty minutes left to our lunch time, and she had yet to do her lunch prayer. She explained it to me the first time we ate lunch together, and now it's just routine that I give her that little bit of space to do it before we head back to class.

"Maybe, I don't know. I'd ask Flora, but I've got her in a nice nap in my bag and I don't really want to wake her. It's hard to get her to sleep during the day." I shrugged. It was true, and apparently the same way with Tundra, if Marya's laughter was any indication.

"Perhaps it's just an off day." She suggested. Goodness, I hope so. It's such an uncomfortable sensation. I just want it to go away.

"Hopefully. Anyways, I'll leave you to this then, and see you in physics," I said, grabbing my book and getting up to leave. "You need anything before I head out?" I paused by the door to the breezeway, waiting for her response as she twisted around to face me.

"No, I'm good. Thanks though, you're very considerate. It's refreshing." She sighed, and I smiled knowingly. Even with her sisters before her, this place hasn't always been the most… accepting of differences. Especially ones of religion. As I pushed my way through the door and into the slightly warmer halls, I recalled how Marya explained the fight her parents had had to put up with the administration to let their daughters do their prayers during the day, and for Nadeen and Marya to wear their hijabs. I still have yet to meet the Samaras, but I don't imagine I would want to argue with two _apparently_ cutthroat lawyers.

As I walked down the hall to my locker, my mind was still floating through thoughts about the acceptance levels of this school, or rather, the lack thereof. So much so, that I didn't see the person I walked right into. I thought this girl was a shadow or something at first, but as I took a stunned step backwards, I realized that was just because her aesthetic was very… black and gothic.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going," I blurted out quickly, smiling awkwardly to try to emphasize the "I'm sorry" part. She was just standing there, unfazed and still as a rock. Her olive eyes blinked slowly, then glanced up and down my body. Her dark lips twitched into a tiny hint of a smirk, then she brushed past me without a word. Her arm brushed mine as she walked past, and the contact sent a shiver down my spine as she disappeared from my sight. What an… unusual… person.

Shaking off the strange encounter, I shuffled down the hall the rest of the way to my locker, absentmindedly grabbed what I needed for fourth period, and headed that direction. English. Oh joy.

I stepped in the classroom and stopped so suddenly in the door way that I almost dropped my books. I would have stood there gaping all day if some jerk hadn't pushed past me into the class and actually made me drop my stuff on the floor. I hate high school boys.

Why was I so surprised? No, I didn't have a sudden epiphany about Shakespeare – instead, I caught sight of the tall, dark haired girl I bumped into in the hall sitting in the back corner. When did she get here? I mean, in the class generally, not just obviously within the past few minutes. I could've sworn I've never seen her before in my life, let alone in my English class.

I took my seat, and before long Mr. Tyler waltzed in the room and leaned against the front of his desk. I've never understood how the man could be so relaxed when he teaches six classes of thirty teenagers every day. Oh well, to each his own, or whatever, I guess.

Throughout the class, while we talked about Romeo and Juliet and how stupid they were – honestly though, who does all that when they're barely even teens – I kept sneaking glances back to the corner where the mystery girl was sitting. She was incredibly silent, for the most part at least. Every now and then, she would raise her hand and answer a question when nobody else seemed to know the answer. She had a surprisingly deep voice, and it was very… I don't know, smooth, I guess? Weirdly calming, if anything today could be.

I looked back at her once more, and she finally noticed me looking at her, which made me feel so embarrassed I snapped my head back immediately, and I felt my face get warm. I probably look like some kind of weirdo, staring at her all class. The bell rang, interrupting my thoughts and my dwelling on the embarrassment of it. Mr. Tyler smirked as everyone immediately moved to pack their stuff up and flooded out the door as fast as possible.

As I went to head out myself, I felt a small draft, and straightened up to see the mystery girl standing beside my desk. She had that same little twitchy smirk on her lips, her eyebrow was slightly curved up.

"You might want to pay more attention to the lesson next time. You might miss something important," she said, those olive eyes burning a hole through me. Before I could even try to respond, she breezed past me and walked out the door. It feels like every time I see that girl she disappears before I can even register that she was there.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, even if the creepy feeling still hung over my head. I chatted with Marya in fifth period, in between lectures, and told her about the mystery girl. She laughed and said she didn't sound familiar, but that there were also over two hundred grade twelves right now, so it's totally possible neither of us have every noticed her before. After class was over, Marya offered me a ride home again with her sisters, even if she couldn't make any promises about them teasing us. I accepted, if only because it was such a nice gesture, not because I couldn't make the walk home per say.

As we made our way out to the parking lot, suddenly I'm hit with a particularly strong sense of déjà vu. The two of us walked through the halls and into the cafeteria lobby, and that strange feeling only got stronger, but it certainly wasn't in a good way. As soon as we walked outside the doors and around the corner of the building, I realized why.

It wasn't a bus this time, but there was another one of those stupid monsters – and we had gone a whole week and a half since the last one! Darn. Well, there's no sense in dwelling on that. Marya obviously had the same idea in mind when we glanced at each other and reached for our phones. Taking a quick look around, we ran behind the garbage bins and tapped the screens of our phones.

"Pretty Cure Renaissance de Joie!" We called out in unison, spinning the icons on our screens and in a brief flash of light, becoming Cure Tulip and Cure Snowy once more. It might not be the right time to be thinking about this, but I can't get over how cute our outfits are. I don't know about mine, but Marya's really seems to suit her too.

"Stop right there!" I called out, jabbing my finger in the direction of the stomping giant saxophone. Hm. Whoever did this must've gotten to one of the band kids.

The monster actually listened – once again, not necessarily a great thing – and it pivoted itself to storm in our direction. Marya- er, Snowy, took the initiative to get this started by running under its legs, leaving a trail of ice in her path. She ran all around its feet as it tried to stomp on her, and noticing it about to stomp on the ice, I took my turn to leap up and do some damage.

The saxophone was smarter than we had anticipated, however, and instead of slipping, it slammed its foot down and smashed through the ice. In the same thought, it also blasted me mid-leap with a strong wave of noise that kind of sounded like a toddler blew into it haphazardly.

I went flying back in the other direction, catching myself around the flagpole and almost tearing the flag off as I gripped it. I knew it probably wouldn't hurt all that much with this superhuman strength thing in action, but I certainly wasn't willing to test it. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to face the wrath of Miss Reilly should I destroy her flag.

I scanned the area for Snowy, and saw her trying to blast her blizzard at the monster. It blew the snow away with another blast, and a creepy, dark tendril type thing snapped out and grabbed her, wrapping itself around her body so tight it couldn't _not_ hurt.

"S-Snowy!" I cried, drawing both Snowy and the monster's attention my way. Her eyes went wide as if she figured out what the monster was about to do about ten seconds before it did – and before I did. Another tendril shot out in my direction, and ripped me off the pole, flag and all. It wrapped around my body probably about five times, and with each wrap it got progressively tighter. I could barely breathe and I couldn't move, and I imagine it wasn't much better for Snowy.

"Tulip! Help me!" Snowy cried, and she kicked her legs, trying to squirm out of the monster's grasp, but to no avail. I felt a wave of pure fear wash over me as I realized this was my worst dream come true. I could only hope that I could try to save us both now that I was conscious.

Just as I tried to think of how to get out of this trap, I heard the nearby set of doors slam. I could barely recognize her, but as I squinted in that direction, I could see the mystery girl from earlier casually walking out of them and towards us, as if she was not even remotely afraid to do so.

Before I could react, a flash of light surrounded her as she continued to walk, and as it faded, I realized that she had transformed into one of us. I broke my shocked gaze from her for a minute to see if Snowy was seeing this, and by the thick eyebrows almost raising off her forehead and her line of sight directed that way, it was obvious she could. She was just as confused and surprised as I was probably.

The girl stopped in her tracks just a few metres away from the monster and raised her hand without a thought. I don't know how I heard her from this far up, but her voice seemed to bellow loudly and left an eerie silence in its wake.

"Pretty Cure Spider's Dance!" She called out, and I felt the ground shake from below – or rather, I shook as the monster shook because of the ground shaking below it. I looked below me to see a black mass erupting from the concrete, and quickly making its way up the monster's legs. As I noticed the mass started to disperse like spiders – which makes sense, I guess – I started to squirm at the idea of them crawling towards me entered my head. I love all little critters equally, but those with eight legs can stay far away from my body, please and thank you.

Mystery girl let her hand fall sharply after the majority of the monster's body was covered in her spiders, and the monster just… poofed into thin air, taking those creepy spiders with it. Snowy and I fell to the ground with a thud, now free from the dark tendrils as they ceased to exist along with the monster they belonged to. I shakily pushed myself up off of the ground, and went over to help Snowy up as I saw the mystery girl walk past us and bend down where the ordinary saxophone was laying. She picked it up, as well as something I saw glimmer with the sunlight. That must've been another one of those shards.

"H-hey! Wait!" I called out after her as she laid the saxophone down next to the case flung open on the grass by the wall of the school and began to walk back to the doors from which she emerged. She didn't even hesitate when I spoke.

"Who are you? Where are you going?" I continued, Snowy and I beginning to chase after her. She stopped and remained with her back to us.

"It's none of your concern," she said, but she didn't leave. I saw her hand grip tighter around the shard as her shoulders heaved in a sigh. Her long silver ponytail was swaying as she let out the breath.

"If you're a Pretty Cure too, shouldn't we at least know your name? And, y'know, work together? Be a team?" Snowy asked, to which the girl responded by spinning around on her heel and resting her other hand on her hip.

"I am Cure Pumpkin, and I have no desire or need to work with you," she replied sharply, her eyes narrowing as they flicked between us.

"But- but- the fairies said-" I began to argue, before she cut me off abruptly.

"I know what they said, my own has been saying the same to me. But obviously I can hold my own and you cannot and I do not need you." Pumpkin snapped, before her attention was drawn to a scratching at the metal of the doors behind her. We all looked over, and sitting inside the two sets of doors was a… purple cat? That must be her fairy.

"Come on, we're only new at this! You can't expect us to be perfect overnight," Snowy said, crossing her arms and pouting as her eyebrows cinched together. Pumpkin ignored her and turned to go to the door.

"Pumpkin! Great, you found them," the cat said as she opened the door and it waltzed out between her feet. She sighed and hung her head with a heavy sigh of obvious frustration.

"Hello, my name is Jack," the cat said as it approached Snowy and I. Aww, what a cute kitty. "I have to apologize for my partner's… difficulty," he glanced back at Pumpkin, "but it is wonderful to finally meet you."

"Jack, please." Pumpkin muttered. She stomped off inside the door and untransformed as she disappeared into the building. Jack just shook his head.

"Like I said, I know she's difficult, but please give her some time. I've been trying to convince her that you all need to work together, but I need a little more time. I promise it'll work out… eventually… I hope," he added, before twisting around to pad off after his "difficult" partner.

"What even was that?" I mused as Snowy and I untransformed. I rubbed my forehead and sighed, as Marya remained with her arms crossed and her foot tapping.

"How rude! How dare she speak to us like that! She doesn't know anything about us," Marya huffed. Wow, the girl's attitude must've really bugged her. This is the first time I've seen her so upset. I mean, it wasn't much, but it still was for Marya.

"Hey, at least the cat- er, Jack, seems to be on our side. Maybe he'll talk some sense into her," I said, shrugging lightly. She and I walked slowly over towards where her sisters usually pulled up for picking us up. I boldly wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and gave a little squeeze. I felt her tense a little, then relax and wrapped her arm around my waist as we waited patiently.

Ameenah and Nadeen pulled up a few minutes later, and as we hopped in the car and drove off, I couldn't stop thinking about this strange new girl. Cure Pumpkin. After Marya, who knew assembling our team would be so darn difficult. I never imagined someone who outright refuse. On a vaguely positive note, I think I finally figured out what that unpleasant feeling was all about. I just hoped I would wake up tomorrow feeling like a hundred bucks instead, to make up for it.


	6. Storm on the Horizon

**_Content Warning:_ This chapter begins with implications of a traumatic event (a car crash) and character death, and allusions to this death are made throughout the chapter. If you are not comfortable with reading this chapter, that is fine and I understand! Feel free to message me to get a brief non-descript-involving-the-events-in-question summary to not miss out on part of the story if this is the case. Enjoy!**

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 _"Mommy look! I beat the level!" I leaned up and held the small Gameboy out to face the mass of red curls spilling back around the passenger seat. Mom turned around and gave me one of her typical warm smiles, glancing down at the screen and putting on what was obviously an exaggerated attempt to congratulate my little success. Her freckled hand twisted back and rubbed my knee._

 _"That's great, sweetie. Maybe you'll have the whole game beat by the time we get home tonight," she said, winking and sticking her tongue out at me playfully._

 _"How long until we get home? Can we play a game together before I go to bed?"_

 _Mom turned back to the front for a second to glance at the clock. She bit her lip and counted to herself on her fingers. "Probably not kiddo, it's gonna be_ way _past your bedtime by the time we get back to Gander. Its already close to 8:30."_

 _I pouted, and let out a little sigh. "Fine."_

 _Mom finally turned back to the front, where Dad was still numbly driving us through the night. This drive was so routine he probably didn't even have to think about it, I imagine._

 _I looked back down at the screen of my game and picked up where I had left off, but it only lasted for another minute or two._

 _I felt the lurch of the brakes and before I could look up, I heard Mom smacking Dad's arm and the dash at the same time._

 _"Jesus, Mike, stop the car!"_

 _By the time I did look up, all I could see was a silhouette of a moose in the headlights._

 _"MOMMY!"_

I shot up out of my bed with a start. I could barely breathe and my heart felt so tight, but also like it was almost gonna burst out of my chest. Good god. Not this nightmare again.

I glanced over at the clock, and saw it blaring 3:47 AM in an obnoxious green glow. Dammit. I'll never get back to sleep now, not unless I want to relive that nightmare again.

My phone was sitting on the nightstand next to my alarm clock, and I rolled over and fumbled to pick it up. Sitting myself up a bit and propping myself up against my mountain of pillows, I tapped the screen until it lit up far too brightly. The eye ̶burning light would keep me awake at least.

In the top corner, under the time, my eye caught the date. September 16th. Oh no. No wonder I was having this nightmare again.

I could feel my hands shaking against the phone, and as I ran my hand down my face, it felt significantly cold. I'm not surprised, I hate today. This is the worst day of the year.

I pushed myself up out of bed, and got dressed, then left my room. I shuffled down the hall with only the dim light of early morning illuminating my way. Since I was up and feeling gross, I figured I might as well play some video games to distract myself until a sensible hour to be awake. It wouldn't be a big deal as long as I muted the TV.

When I got downstairs, I saw a figure standing over the kitchen sink, staring out the window.

"Dad," I said quietly as I walked up behind him and laid my hand on his arm. He turned to look down at me, and the sad little smile on his face nearly broke my heart.

"Hey kiddo," he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Couldn't sleep either?"

"No, not well," I replied, sighing and leaning into the warmth of his arms. It was rare that Dad was home for so long. I'm so glad he's here now though. I really need him today.

"Do you want to play some Mario Kart with me?" I asked, looking up at him and matching his smile the best I could.

"Sounds like a great idea ̶ as long as I get to be the spiky guy." He led us over to the living room, where he sat down on the couch while I set up the game.

"Bowser? Ok, sure," I laughed. I always appreciate that he can make me laugh no matter what. I finished setting everything up and handed him a remote. He fiddled with a bit before turning it the right way and sliding the strap on his wrist. I gave him a curious side glance and he shrugged.

"Never too safe," he winked, and the race started as I laughed at him. He burnt out at the start ̶ he was never good at this game, but it's still fun to play with him.

After I beat him a few times, he leaned back into the couch and sighed. I knew what he was gonna say next ̶ he said it every year.

"I know today's a hard day, it always is. I miss her too, and it hurts like hell. I can't imagine how you feel, but I want you to know that I'll always be here for you, kid," he said, pulling me in for a tight hug. This was the softer side of the big burly army man that very few people ever got to see, and it's what I love about him.

"I know Dad, and you're right, it hurts a lot," I paused and looked him in the eye. "I can't even go visit her. She's all the way in Gander," I added.

"I know. She'd be proud of you though," he ruffled my hair and kissed the top of my head. Standing up, he handed me the Wii remote. I raised my eyebrow at him curiously. Where was he going?

"Amelia's probably going to wonder where I'm at soon, and I'm starting to feel pretty tired. 6 o'clock's going to come quick today." He said, running his hand through his hair. I glanced at the clock under the TV ̶ 4:36 AM. He wasn't wrong.

"Ok, well, thanks for playing with me," I smiled and relaxed back into the couch, pulling my feet up under me sideways.

"Anytime," he replied before disappearing down the hall.

I sighed as he left. This was going to be a hard day.

I lazed around for another few hours, until everyone else got up and Amelia started to make us all breakfast. Dumb and Dumber were picking at each other yet again, and as they were about to turn it on me, Amelia shot them the deadliest glare I've ever seen. She was trying to be subtle, but I saw her mouth "not today" at them out of the corner of my eye. They looked between each other, at me, at their mother, then resigned to eating their cereal and toast.

Dad and Amelia's days start so early that leaving the house and being at school long before it starts is just normal routine at this point. As the boys and I walked down the sidewalk to our schools, the air felt extra crisp. The air felt kind of heavy, like it was going to rain, but maybe that was just me.

"Later losers," I muttered as I waited for the little nuisances to make their way into school. École Ste Marie was a small little school, and the only French school in town. Honestly I'm surprised it's here at all.

I continued walking in the direction of the high school, and was pretty zoned out, only halfheartedly paying attention to the ground in front of me, when I heard a loud and frantic chirping. I stopped and looked around. I didn't see any birds in the sky.

The chirping continued, and I noticed a nearby bush starting to rustle with the noise. Hm. Weird. I walked over and pushed the branches apart, only to see a little blue bird fussing about on the ground. It kind of looked like a Blue Jay or something, but it had a big red puffy chest, and it looked very disgruntled.

Ok, ok, so I know you're not supposed to just pick birds up with your hands. What do I do then? I can't just leave the little fella there, he's obviously hurt or something. I decided to take off the scarf I was wearing and wrapped it around my hands, then bent down and scooped it up, trying to be as gentle as possible.

"Hey little fella, I got you, don't worry. Shh, it's okay," I tried to comfort the little guy as I held the bird up in front of me. It stopped squirming and squawking as I raised it and held it closer to me.

"What's the matter with you today?" I asked, rhetorically of course. I didn't expect the bird to answer.

I noticed a little branch sticking out from between the feathers of one wing, and with the way it was holding its wing, the branch was also poking into its side.

I gently tugged the branch out of its wing and threw it to the ground. The bird looked around, then stretched out its wing. It pecked my hand quickly a few times, then abruptly flew out of my hands and off into the sky.

"Be safe!" I called out after it. I hate seeing animals in trouble.

The day was fairly uneventful from there on out, honestly. I went through the motions of classes and work at school, just wishing I could go on home. I honestly tried to keep up a normal, happy demeanor, but it was a really difficult thing to do, today of all days.

"Excuse me," a voice broke me out of my thoughts while I sat staring blankly at the white board. I looked up to see who it was. A girl with long brown hair, big round glasses and a lot of freckles. I think I've seen her around before, she's that one kid that always answers questions in class. Like, always.

"Yeah?"

"Rita, right? Ms. Charlotte said you had her ruler, do you mind if I borrow it?" She asked. I glanced down at the desk and noticed the ruler I had sitting on top of my art project. It had "CHARLOTTE 102" written in big bold black letters on the front, and I forgot I had taken it to use – though I hadn't really been using it all that much. I picked it up and held it out to her. She took and smiled at me, but the smile faded kind of quickly and suddenly she looked concerned.

"You seem kind of lonely over here, would you, I don't know, like to come over and sit with Marya and I, maybe?" She asked, scratching her head and looking around kind of nervously. Hm. I don't really feel like having company right now, but I also hate when people worry about me. I realized I was just staring at her when she began to fidget even more awkwardly. "That is, if you want. You don't have to, I just thought I'd offer."

"Sure, I guess. Thanks," I replied, shrugging and gathering my things, then following her as she stumbled around the desks and chairs. I sat down between her and another girl, who was sitting there coloring something with leads. Hers looked way better than mine… but Freckles' project made me feel a little bit better about my artistic abilities.

"Marya, this is Rita, I asked her to come sit with us," Freckles said to the other girl, who just looked up at me and smiled as she tucked a strand of hair into her headscarf. I flinched at Freckles' reference to me.

"It's 'them', actually." I corrected, then shot a small smile at the other girl ̶ Marya, I guess. "Hey."

"Oh, I'm sorry! My bad," Freckles said as she sat down. "I should've asked, I guess. We both use 'she', by the way."

"Cool, don't sweat it," I replied with a shrug. I picked up my own leads ̶ a red and a blue one ̶ stuck one behind my ear and began to color with the other.

The two of them chatted a little bit while we worked, but mostly left me alone, thankfully. Normally I would've been all for a conversation, but not right now.

"Ok, it's about time for class to be over, so if you all want to start cleaning up, that'd be great," Ms. Charlotte announced, which meant that there was about five minutes left. Good, only two more classes, then I can head home.

"Thanks for sitting with us Rita, Lily and I appreciate it," Marya said as she began to put away her leads into her pencil case. So Freckles' name was Lily. Ok then.

"No problem," I said, shoving my stuff in my bag and waving as I almost ran out of the class. Homeroom and fifth period, that's it. At least my homeroom is the phys ed teacher, so she'll probably let us go to the gym and play some game or something. I could really use to shoot some hoops, or kick around a soccer ball, honestly. It's kind of cathartic.

Mrs. Collins, my homeroom teacher, wasn't in the classroom, nor was anyone else, so I just laid my stuff down and headed over to the gym. For some reason, there seemed to be nobody there. I had a really strange feeling come over me, but I assume that's just because there's always someone in the gym.

Just as I was going to head back to the classroom, I heard a blood curdling scream tear through the echo of the gym. I stopped in my tracks and spun around. My eyes scanned the entire room, and I gasped pretty sharply when I realized what had made the sound.

There was a giant… _thing_ over by the equipment storage room. I don't really know what to call it, but my goodness it did not look like a fun time. It was kind of like a basketball net grew arms and legs, and they were really gross. I should probably have gone to the office to tell them about… whatever that is, but I couldn't bring myself to move from where I stood.

"Goodness gracious not another one!" I heard a familiar voice over two sets of footsteps that were approaching me. I noticed that the two girls from art class had run up behind me, and were not standing in front of me, holding their phones in their hands or something.

"Rita! You may want to get out of here, it's not really safe in here," Marya said, waving me away without even looking back at me. What did she mean it's not safe? Was that thing dangerous? What were these two going to do about it?

"Let's go get this over with, I suppose," Lily sighed, and the two of them ran farther into the gym, straight in the direction of the giant thing. I was about to call out to them out of pure horror, tell them to stop, and probably ask them if they were foolish, but before I could, they were enveloped in a flash of light. When it faded away, they looked very different. Like fairies or princesses or something.

I don't know, it was weird.

"Blossom! The fresh joy of spring! I am Cure Tulip!"

"Freeze! The chilly wonder of winter! I am Cure Snowy!"

As I watched them start to actually fight that screaming giant monster thing, I felt another weird feeling wash over me. Almost like I should be helping them, or something like that. What could I do though? I'm not some sparkly superhero like these two clearly are.

I looked around in my immediate surroundings, for something ̶ anything ̶ to do something with. The two of them were getting thrown around pretty badly by this thing, so maybe if I could distract it…. aha! A soccer ball! Perfect. I stepped over and crouched down to grab it. I glanced at the ball in my hands and gripped it tightly as I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

"Haaaaaa!" I yelled as I ran forward and bounced the ball off the floor in front of me. I gave that sucker the hardest kick I could possibly put out, and it went soaring into the… monster's face? Whatever. It hit it, and while it probably didn't hurt it, it sure got its attention.

"Rita, no!" The green one… Lily, I think, called out. She began to run in my direction, as Marya looked up at the monster with an expression of fear. As the monster began to move in my direction, I understood why. It reached me before Lily did, and smashed its basketball hand down at me. I was scared to death, but I'll be damned if I'll run away from a fight. I closed my eyes and raised my arms to brace myself for the impact.

I waited, but felt nothing. Shouldn't something have hit me by now? I hesitantly opened my eyes to see a red haze around me. What? It was like I had a force field around me, before it abruptly shattered and pushed the monster back.

"No way…" Lily said as she stared at me like I was some sort of alien. I vaguely heard Marya call something out from where she was still standing ̶ over by where the monster was regaining its footing. I got a wicked draft as the monster was suddenly covered in a heap of sno ̶ wait, snow in September? What's going on?

"I found you!" A small voice chirped, and I looked over at the open gym door, where a bird flew in and was coming my way. Wait… that's the bird from this morning! Did it just… talk? As it approached, I noticed it had something small and shiny in its beak. I held up my hands and it landed in them, then took the small crystal thing in its wings and pressed them together tightly. When they separated… it was holding a… phone? It laid it in my hand then floated back into the air.

"What's this?" I asked, looking between the bird, the phone and Lily, who was gazing at me expectantly.

"You're one of us! If you spin the thing on your screen and transform, you can help us fight!" She said, glancing back at the monster and Marya, who was still fighting it.

Transform? Fight? None of it made any sense, but if I can get that thing gone and get out of here, I'll do it. I looked at the screen of the phone, where there was a little wave icon. I touched it, and like Lily suggested, gave my finger a flick to spin it. The screen lit up brightly and before I knew it I was enveloped in a bright light too.

A sensation like water literally washed over me, and I felt my hair lift up off the side of my face. When I glanced down, I was wearing some sort of red, white and blue body suit, a pair of red gloves and boots. What am I, an American on the fourth of July? If only the thing on my belt was a star instead of a lightning bolt. Really, what a ridiculous outfit.

"Roar! The vibrant spark of summer! I am Cure Cloud!" I hollered as the light faded away and I felt a surge of energy flow through me.

"Cure Cloud! Sweet!" Lily cheered, as she ran over and gave me a hug. "Now could you please give us a hand? I don't think Snowy's attack will hold this guy down for long."

"Uh sure, I guess," I replied. We ran forward and both leaped into the air above the monster. I felt like I needed to take my crappy feelings out on this thing right now, so I landed an incredibly forceful punch into the thing as Lily planted the toe of her foot into it as well. It crunched the floorboard underneath its weight – that must've had a heck of a lot of force behind it. Wow.

"Let's have some fun with this, shall we?" I said, more to myself than anything, as I flipped back off of it and then charged forward again and reached my hands underneath. With as much power as I could put into it, I threw the monster into the air, and then followed it into the air with a vault of a jump (sweet!). As it began its quick and heavy fall, I laid into the stupid thing with the hardest punch I've ever let go – even more than the last one. With a satisfying smack, it hit the wall across from me, and crumpled to the floor. Before anyone in the room could react, I ran over and gave it one more solid kick, further crushing it into the wall with such a feeling of satisfaction I couldn't even describe it if I wanted to.

"Wow Cloud! That was… amazing!" Lily- er… Tulip said, clapping at my efforts. Nice kid, that one. She'd make a good teacher with how, uh, encouraging she is.

"Um, perhaps, Cloud, you could use your magic attack now!" Mar- _Snowy_ added, both of them approaching me and the monster.

"Magic, huh? Sounds good," I cracked my knuckles and grinned in a way I could only imagine would be described as "devious" or "cheeky". Words I'd be proud of, honestly.

I closed my eyes and it hit me what I had to do. Time to let loose a storm matching the one I'm feeling, as cheesy as that sounds.

"Pretty Cure Thunder Torrent!" I leaped into the air as I opened my eyes, and slammed down into the floor with my fist. The air around me got really hot and heavy, and I felt a strong wing swirl around me. All of a sudden, a wicked downpour began from nowhere. I raised my hand towards the ceiling, and drew the water together into a concentrated stream. With another solid punch, I directed the stream at the monster relentlessly, maintaining the force of the attack as I stood there. As I let out the stream of water, it almost felt as though my crappy feelings flowed out with it. The stream got stronger and stronger, and I felt a few hot tears trickle down my face. Letting this out feels so good! I could use something like this every year.

Finally, I pulled back and let the stream of water die out, and the wind and humidity settled down as I did. Nothing was left in the place of the monster, and the missing basketball net was back on the wall where it was supposed to be. Tulip walked over to where the monster once laid, and bent down to pick something up, I think. As she returned to Snowy, they both returned to being Lily and Marya in a flash of light, and when I glanced down, I had returned to my normal self as well.

"Awesome! I didn't even have to use my attack this time! You're _good_ , Rita," Lily said, glancing over at me. I smiled slightly and rubbed the back of my head. Gee thanks, glad I could be of assistance, I guess? Hah.

"No problem, happy to help," I replied, as our attention was drawn behind me by the sound of sneakers squeaking over by the gym doors. Mrs. Collins walked in the room with her hands on her hips and a curious look at the three of us.

"Rita, I see you've beat me to the chase, do you want to help me drag the equipment out since you're here?" She asked, gesturing to the back room. She walked towards us, and I spun around to face her, shooting her a double thumbs up. She smiled and laughed.

"I guess we'll be heading out then…" Marya said softly, glancing between me, Lily, and Mrs. Collins nervously. Lily nodded and they began to walk towards the door together.

"Sure you don't wanna stay and shoot some hoops with me?" I offered, pointing to the basketball net we just fixed and winking. They both laughed and shook their heads.

"No thanks, we're not really… the sporty type," Lily said, waving goodbye. I watched the two leave and then turned my attention back to Mrs. Collins, who tossed me her keys to the equipment room. As I headed back to start hauling the stuff out for my class, and inevitably her next one too, I started to think about the day. I woke up in a really bad place, and now I'm smiling. I wish Mom were here – I really do – and I hope Dad's right that she'd be proud of me, even if I weren't some kick butt superhero now. I slid the new phone out of my pocket, and glanced down at it. Hopefully this new thing will be an interesting experience.

"Human! I am hungry!" A small voice squawked from in front of me. There sat the blue bird from earlier, flapping his wings furiously. I can't take this little guy seriously, oh my goodness. I burst into laughter, keeling over and feeling my eyes fill with tears of the good kind as I laughed.

"What are you laughing at? Feed me!" He said. I picked him up under my arm and noogied his head lightly. What a fun new little friend. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe _today_ wasn't such a bad day after all.


End file.
